In the natural world, each species is endowed with unique abilities tailored to their survival. For humans, our true superpower lies in our ability to make choices, writes 041culture columnist MVUME NDIMBA.

You know how nature just seems to endow a species with a particular skill or “power” if you will?Â
How do cheetahs run all fast and camels hold nutrients in their humps or whatever? I think that nature gives you everything you need to survive and thrive in your environment.Â
We see dogs being able to smell a snack from 100m away in the wind, a cat can and will stare at you all night with no loss of resolution or focus and how birds just know where to go when the weather gets too cold and it’s time for them to summer in a completely different country (SBWL), but what is the human superpower? What is our natural ability that nature gives us to survive?
I’ve heard that our ability as humans is stamina. See, humans can self-regulate temperature after a certain age so we don’t overheat like the cheetah does after a couple meters of sprinting. We don’t burn in the sun and need to cover ourselves in mud like elephants or pigs or whatever, our bodies have a built-in cool off function, which is cool to know but seeing as i can’t actually remember the last time i ran with intent i’ll leave that as a “possible” but for me, the definitive 100% bonafide superpower all humans possess is choice.
In my personal capacity I have been writing a book on this topic but today the idea of choice as a power is really visceral in my mind. It feels almost tangible and this is due in no small part to the recently concluded rap beef between two of the biggest rap artists of the last decade.
Now for those that aren’t really tapped in, I’ll give you a short key below to better understand where I’m coming from. So a few important pieces of language are:
1. Beef – A conflict between two or more rappers where they engage in a sparring match of words where they exchange mean-spirited poems about each other to convince the public that one is a better artist than the other.Â
2. Bars-Â A colloquial term that refers to the stanza used by the rappers in question to create an idea or tell a story,Â
3. Cos-play – The act of dressing up and pretending to be someone you aren’t (costume play)Â Â
4. Big 3 – A colloquial term once used to refer to J Cole, Drake and Kendrick Lamar collectively, now obsolete as there is now a clear 1.2 and 3 spot.Â
So, now that we’re all caught up, let me bring back choices. Because this beef started with 3 people looking at one another claiming they are better than the next man.
2 of the 3 got together and made a cute song about how they are the best two out of the lot… the 3rd man didn’t take that very well. Choice number 1. The eventual winner decided that this buddy buddy stuff isn’t going to work for him. So he sent some bars to the two besties and let them know “Hey. There is no big 3, it’s just big me” and all hell broke loose..
At this stage another critical set of decisions were made. My favourite of the 3 sent a response out that lacked any conviction or venom and quickly apologised for stepping out of line, confirming that there is no big 3.. At the time it made me so sad to hear… I was really in my home mad because my guy, my choice for the royal rumble, walked out to his entrance music, did all the dances and celebrations and as soon as the bell rang to start the fight he climbed out of the ring and went home. We haven’t heard a rap from him since and last we saw that fella he was on the beach in long socks and sneakers…
In hindsight, this man made the best decision. The second placed gentleman by virtue of actually participating made a decision that forever changed how we look at him. You see in beef, historically there is nothing that is considered off limits. We have seen beef escalate to physical violence and in some cases ended in murder, remember these aren’t scientists, these are performers and artists. So it is not uncommon for some crazy stuff to unfold like say… literally emasculating yourself as an act of rebellion against yourself (look up Andre “Christ Bearer” Johnson)
So when the second placed rapper accused the eventual winner of domestic violence, lying about his backstory (cos-playing) , sleeping with white women (consensually), being a cuckold and having a trans-gender aunty/uncle. It was not considered crossing a line when the winner accused the runner up of abandoning a second child, being ashamed of his baby-mothers, sex trafficking, peadophilia and being a hip-hop colonizer.
The choice the runner up had was to bow out gracefully and let the fans fight over who really is the best… Instead he chose to engage. And now the word “fan” just doesn’t sound the same… Now you hear “Freaky A** Ni**a” when you hear the word “fan” and that’s all the result of his (runner up) choice to engage with someone who had nothing to lose.
And the final, and in my opinion most powerful choice made by the winner was to remove all copyright rights from the final track, in essence de-colonizing music and creating a brand new president for artists and record labels, content creators are reporting that they have been able to make “life changing” amounts of money by using his music and with all the red-tape and litigiousness that surrounds IP in general has sort of been shown for what it is… pointless capitalism getting between the creator and the consumer. A fantastic piece of positivity in a sea of negativity…
Now to tie this all back to the power of choice… We all have a series of decisions to make on a daily basis. Each choice we make has a direct and equal consequence. You see, my former favourite saw early on that things were going to escalate. He knew that his fellow mixed race brother was going to go low and make jabs and shots that are considered “below the belt.”
i don’t believe he knew how much lower the other guy would go, putting a spotlight on a lot of shaky behaviour with underaged or barely legal teenage girls like Milly Bobby Brown and Billie Eilish, a weird video that surfaced of that same global superstar recording himself performing a lewd act (which was weird in the moment but looks even crazier with the benefit of time because this person has been expert at only letting us see what he wants us to see. He doesn’t even do interviews unless he has full control of the content of the interview and control of how and when the content is released)
That dread-headed gentleman chose his own peace. He chose to do what was right for himself and not what the fans wanted to see.
I think the most important takeaway from this exchange isn’t the music, it isn’t the accusations or lyrics, it’s the act of choosing. The act of making a decision and living with the consequences. One of the 3 made every right choice and has been decided the winner by all metrics. One made all the wrong decisions and doubled down on those bad choices, now he is currently battling some serious allegations, dealing with a shooting that occured at his home and planning the way forward from a spot he’s never found himself in before. And one made a bad decision and corrected it immediately by apologising.
When making choices, you can’t always be Kendrick. You can’t always get it right, sometimes you will slip and make a mistake and when that mistake inevitably comes up, you have the choice to course correct and fix the situation like J Cole. Or you can go the Drake route, make mistake after mistake and refuse to take a step back and see how the perception of you changes before your eyes.
The choice is yours!
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